Tibi Bill Would Ban Reference to Pre-State Arab Gangs

Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al-United Arab List) is scheduled to introduce a bill in the Knesset, Monday, that would deny approval to textbooks that use of the terms "gang" or "gang leader" to refer to Arabs who fought against the Jews before the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 and would refer to them as "fighters". Under the measure, a team of Arab and Jewish historians would have to re-approve existing textbooks for further use.

Knesset Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon cleared the bill for introduction, who did not view the proposal as seeking to undermine Israel's existence. It is the latest in a series of measures by MK Tibi to reshape the Israeli consciousness. One, which has been defeated by the Knesset, sought to study Israel's establishment under the hostile Arab term of Nakba (catastrophe). On Sunday, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein recommended invalidating a pending bill which views eastern Jerusalem as the capital of the proposed Palestinian Authority state and the Islamic nation, explaining that it negates the existence of the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people.